In 1500, this explorer sailed 13 ships into the western Atlantic Ocean, headed for Asia The ships landed on the eastern coast of what he assumed was a large island in fact, it was the continent South America The land he claimed as a colony for Portugal eventually became the country of Brazil.
His fleet of 13 ships sailed far into the western Atlantic Ocean, perhaps intentionally, and made landfall (April 1500) on what he initially assumed to be a large island.